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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (239221)	3/17/2002 11:15:27 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Untrue. Examples of how a waiting period and background check would prevent specific crimes: bradycampaign.org A waiting period could help in reducing crimes of passion and in preventing people with criminal records or dangerous mental illness from acquiring guns." -- NRA Fact Book on Firearms Control, 1976 The Importance of the Waiting Period -- For Background Checks and as a "Cooling-Off" Period On January 14, 1999, a woman with a history of mental illness walked into a Salt Lake City, Utah office building and began firing a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. She killed one person and wounded another. The disturbed woman had never owned a gun but was able to pass a background check and purchase a gun and use it two hours later to kill. The previous year, the woman had been committed to a mental institution by a judge, thereby making her a prohibited purchaser. However, most states do not make such mental health records accessible for the purposes of a background check, so she was able to buy a gun. A waiting period might have altered her state of mind, alerted her family to her dangerous intentions, and/or permitted local police to determine that her mental health status would have precluded her purchase of a gun. Without the "cooling-off" period, individuals contemplating suicide have easier access to firearms when they are most vulnerable, angry family members have the immediate opportunity to buy a gun before their tempers have cooled, and the mentally-ill who have violent intentions have legally acquired firearms without a thorough background check. In April 1999, the Citrus County (Florida) Commission passed an ordinance requiring that firearm dealers wait three days before allowing a purchaser to gain possession of any firearm. Current state law in Florida requires a 72-hour wait only for handguns. In February 2001, Troy Truax attempted to purchase a shotgun from Manchester's Pawn and Gun in Citrus County, but left when told he would have to wait three days before being able to take possession of the gun. Truax then tried the A-OK Pawn & Gold pawnshop in the same county, whose owner was either unaware of or ignored the county ordinance. Truax walked out of the store with a shotgun and drove to his home, where he shot and killed his former girlfriend and himself. The gun seller was eventually charged for not observing the waiting period. Why We Shouldn't Rely Solely on NICS: A Lesson from Colorado On the evening of June 22, 1999, Simon Gonzales of Castle Rock, Colorado bought a 9mm Taurus handgun and 30 rounds of ammunition from a licensed dealer while his three young daughters played in the dealer's yard. Despite having a restraining order filed against him by his wife, Gonzales passed the NICS background check run by the dealer and he was able to buy the gun. In the early morning hours of June 23, Simon Gonzales died in a hail of gunfire from police, after he drove up to a police station and opened fire. Inside the cab of the truck were the bodies of the three girls, whom the police forensics experts say were killed by Gonzales with his newly-purchased weapon in the time period before he launched his assault on the police. Why did Gonzales pass the background check? According to the Denver Post, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had performed instant background checks until March of 1999, when the 12-member unit was disbanded by the Colorado Legislature in order to save money. In future, all background checks on potential gun purchasers would be conducted solely by the gun dealer calling the NICS. During the investigation into the Gonzales' shooting, the CBI discovered the restraining order against Gonzales in its database. However, restraining orders are not included in the NICS system. Had the CBI been still performing background checks, the restraining order would have been detected and Gonzales would have been denied a gun. Tellingly, the CBI background check unit rejects about 7 percent of gun applicants, compared to about 1 percent under the federal system. As a result of this tragedy, Colorado returned to a state-based background check system, but the damage was already done. If the state had not terminated, for the sake of financial expediency, its own more comprehensive background check system, Leslie, Katheryn and Rebecca Gonzales, aged 7, 8 and 10, might still be alive today. Could there be any better reason for comprehensive background checks and waiting periods before gun purchases?